The Thermal Caverns
---- Silver lead the young woman towards Crashing Wave's guild. They were close to approaching the cliffside island where her Guild Hall was located. "Alright. I don't know if you're some sort of fangirl of Ster and I but, you're not going to see him. We're just going straight down to the caves. Don't say anything to anybody." Silver didn't wany anyone to know that she was taking pity and teaching anymore. Dakota nodded enthusiastically, practically vibrating she was so excited. She looked at the guild in awe, though made sure not to fall behind Silver in case anything happened. As she was lead to the caves, billions of possibilities ran through Dakota's mind. Now that they were on the ground, Dakota figured she would have the speed advantage though she wasn't going to bet on it in case that turned out to be incorrect. There was also how Silver planned on going about their spar, which could possibly mean that speed meant nothing and she wanted to focus solely on the power behind her strikes. "Hey, Silv." Said a young man with soft brown hair and glasses. Silver tried to hide her discomfort as his shoulder brushed against hers. "Whose the girl?" Souten asked kindly. "None of your business Souten." He frowned and walked away. "I am using the caverns today. No one come in there until I leave." She shouted to her guild members. Silver began limping down the long flight of stairs down into the geothermal caverns. When they reached the bottom she turned down to the left, after reaching the end of the short hallway she opened the large oaken door. A blast of cold air greeted them as Silver walked in. "Did anyone ever teach you the Milkovich method?" She asked entering one of the caverns underneath her guild. Dakota sighed contentedly at the cold burst of air, closing her eyes for a moment to enjoy it. At Silver's question, Dakota shook her head. "Most of my training comes from watching others and putting it to the test. Whether it works or not on the first try is always questionable, but I eventually get the hang of it." She says as she looked at the cavern. "Ever heard of Ur Milkovich? Her apprentices Gray Fullbuster and Lyon Vastia?" Silver smiled. "If so, I'm going to put you through my version of the Milkovich method. I am self-taught. I heard rumors of what she did so, I made my own version. They don't call me the The Woman Who Froze Hell for nothing." Dakota recognized the names, though didn't know a lot besides the fact that they were all very powerful ice-make mages. Of course, she heard the legend about Ur freezing a demon from the books of Zeref for all of eternity. which had been an amazing and selfless feat, though that had soon been forgotten when Lyon learned how to get rid of said immortal ice. "As far as the three of them go, I understand Ur trained Gray and Lyon in the icy mountains practically naked, but I've already done that, and we certainly aren't on a mountain." She says. "Hm. You've claimed that you don't get cold easily." Silver said. They were still close to the entrance, they hadn't reached the cold caverns of the cave system yet, even Silver felt a chill in the coldest one. "We'll both strip." Silver told her. The woman took off her boot, but stayed in her shorts and crop-top, and the always present gauntlets stayed on her forearms. Dakota slipped off her boots, her simple sleeveless tube top and shorts remaining. The ground was pleasantly cool on her feet, which had been practically burning from being confined in her shoes for so long. Silver began limping deeper into the cavern. "Tell me when you're cold. We'll keep going until you're cold." She gradually walked farther from the door and it slowly reached 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Dakota followed Silver, getting colder, but not feeling cold. "You do realize I've literally lived up in the mountains before, right? This hardly holds a candle to constant blizzards, limited oxygen, and sleeping on ice, all while being dressed in what I am in now and occasionally a thin blue sweater." She states, her breath collecting in small puffs in front of her. "You'll feel cold soon." Silver continued walking, letting the cold engulf her it was calming. "This is where you will learn ice." She walked, the temperature started to drop even quicker and it eventually reached -50. Her own body was shivering uncontrollably. and Silver tired to smile. "See? Even. I. Am. Cold." As the temperature continued to drop, Dakota began to curl in on herself, hugging her body and rubbing her hands up and down her arms in order to get some sort of friction and heat. Her teeth were chattering loudly and quickly, and her fingertips and lips were beginning to turn blue. "Th-th-that'ssss aw-aweso-me," She says. Silver chuckled. "Let's warm you up a little bit. We can walk up higher, maybe negative 20?" She smiled at her then walked upwards. "When you're not dying cold then tell me." Dakota nodded, following Silver back towards the warmer temperatures. After it rose ten degrees, her excessive chattering had stopped, and another ten allowed her to comfortably stand without seeking extra heat. "Alright, let's do this!" She exclaims, pumping her fist in the air. "Alright." Silver said sternly. "I am going to punch. Create the thinnest shield you can that will block the attack. I'll go easy, I won't light them yet." Silver didn't wait for a response and threw a right hook at Dakota. Dakota placed her hands together, a shield about three inches thick forming between Silver's fist and Dakota. It cracked, though fully stopped Silver's momentum. She stared at the shield that separated them. "I've never thought of how much energy I waste with making thick ice shields." She says, staring down at her hands. She presses her hand on the ice, which allowed it to dissipate, then places them back into the standard ice-make formation, waiting for Silver's next attack. "Again. This time one-inch thick." Silver prepared to punch again. This time she punched with her weaker left hand. Dakota did as told, forming a one-inch thick shield of ice between her and Silver. Despite Dakota's best efforts, intensely thinking about the density of the ice instead of the thickness, the shield was broken, and Silver's punch carried through. However, Dakota leapt backward to avoid it, though a deeply agitated look still covered her features. "Um. Kid, the ice you create isn't linked to the density or the thickness. Those are aspects of it, but it's your emotion." Silver got into her ice-make stance. Her fake leg forward, right leg backwards. Her hands were clasped together at her right hip. "Go ahead. Prepare any spell you'd like. Don't be afraid of hurting me." Dakota nods, creating a small bomb that fit in the palm of her hand. She chucked it at Silver as hard as she could, stating burst a moment after, which caused it to explode, Dakota redirecting the shrapnel away from herself. The attack was on a smaller scale than what it had been before, though the explosion had been much more concentrated and fast, allowing it greater momentum and force. "Shield." A thin sheet of ice blocked the attack. It was darker than Dakota's ice. A navy blue, almost black. "Your emotion fuels your casting. The more powerful the feeling, the stronger the ice is." Silver waved a hand, and the dark ice disappeared. "Mine is black ice. The emotion I fuel into my casting is pain." Silver said curtly. "Find your strongest emotion and channel that into your ice. It may change color; perhaps turn lighter or darker. I've even seen someone whose ice is tinted orange. It was beautiful. Light orange at the center, then it became transparent near the edges." Dakota nodded along to what Silver was saying, looking down at her hands. "Emotions fuel casting," She repeats slowly, as though entranced by the sight of her fingers. She thought back to all the times she had been fighting. Most often, she fought in order to preserve or boost her pride in herself, including earlier when she had been wrongly accused of fighting a guy on the street for no reason. And while it incredibly selfish to want to do something like that, it wasn't like she went around and punched little kids to make herself feel stronger. "Alright, let's do it again," She says, placing her hands back into the ice-make position. Silver smiles. "Go for it. I want to see your color." Silver charged up a punch and swung. towards Dakota. Dakota created a shield, thinking harshly about when she had been fighting Silver earlier, emotions flooding her mind as she did so. She made sure to keep it one inch thick, however, this ice was not a foggy white as it had been before., Instead, it was colored lilac in the center, which eventually faded into a translucent lavender around the edges. Dakota stared in awe at her colored creation, which had stopped Silver's punch completely without fracturing even the smallest bit. "Yay!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms up in excitement. "Soon, you can create a shield as thin as well. A sheet of ice that can protect you from most spells." Silver bit her lip. "By the way... What is your name?" She asked sheepishly, rubbing her head. Dakota smiled brightly. "I'm Dakota Fath," She says, "S-Class Mage of Koma Inu," She finishes, sticking out her arm for a handshake. "S-Class.." Silver declined the handshake, instead lightly punching the woman on the arm. "Damn, you're a little young for S-Class." She frowned. "Aren't you 16? I didn't know that times were that hard." Silver was oblivious to the fact that the woman was only a few years younger than her due to her small stature. Considering there hadn't been a direct threat to her stature, Dakota decided against rage for the time being, instead smiling sheepishly. "I'm actually 21 years old," She says, sounding a too forced for it to sound like it hadn't bothered her, but still calm enough to show she wasn't going to throw a hissy fit unless further provoked about it. "..." Silver didn't speak for a moment. She shook her head then finally spoke. "Really? You're so-" Silver cut herself short. She remembered how people stared at her on the streets, how people laughed at her or commented about her leg. "I'm sorry. Um. Let's go again?" Silver got back into her ice-make position and prepared for Dakota's attack. Dakota shook her head, waving her hands in front of her. "No need to apologize. I actually think that's the closest someone's ever been to actually guess my age," She assures, laughing it off. As Silver suggested they get back to work, Dakota nodded. This time, she covered her fist in ice, which was a few shades lighter than what her shield had been, though still obviously purple. She took a deep breath in, situating her feet so she was leading with her right one. In one quick and smooth movement, she shifted, throwing a punch towards Silver, using her whole body to increase her force and keep it steady. Silver grabbed her wrist and pulled Dakota towards her, then when she was close enough, The ice wizard pushed the small of her back, sending Dakota running past her. "That is a good idea, but you're putting too much weight, it is easy to set you off balance. Next time keep your feet firm and thrust with your hip." Silver beckoned to her. "I'm going to copy your exact same move, try to do what I did to you and set me off balance." Dakota nodded, getting into a solid stance. While she'd certainly be able to pick Silver up no problem, working Silver's momentum against her was going to be trickier, being that Silver had a great amount of force behind her attacks, so she wanted to be prepared in case things went awry. Silver twisted her hips thrusting forward with her left fist. Most of her weight was still planted on the ground, but the force of her attack lay in her punch. Dakota quickly grabbed onto Silver's wrist, attempting to pull Silver forward. However, Silver was firmly planted, and Dakota was only able to force her forward a bit through her own strength rather than Silver's momentum. Silver smiled. "Plant your feet, thrust from your hips and let it carry your arm along with it." She redid her ponytail and readied herself to defend from an attack. "Again." Dakota nodded, planting her right foot in front of her left. She torques her hips to the left as she throws a right hook towards Silver, keeping her feet firmly in place. Silver was barely able to duck the powerful punch that sped towards her. "Gods. You're pretty powerful." Silver straightened her back again and began to speak once more. "Let's focus on your creations. What's your favorite thing to cast?" Dakota smiled at the compliment. "The ice-make mages in my guild focus primarily on weaponry, so I figured going on the hand-to-hand route would make me easily distinguishable." She admits, rubbing the back of her neck. At Silver's question, Dakota ponders for a moment. "Probably either gloves or the bomb. Easiest to cast and useful for the most scenarios," She says. "Alright. Let's see if your gloves can match mine." Silver took off her metal gloves and cast black-ice gloves around her own hands. "Remember, pour your emotion into the casting." The black haired woman smiled. "I prefer dynamic creations as you may have noticed. It is easier to sync my emotions with living things." Dakota nods, and her fists become encased in a deep lilac ice, and it fades to a pale lavender towards her wrists. "Solid objects are more dependable in my opinion though I enjoy using both to mix things up. Confusing the hell out of my opponents tends to be my trademark move," She says, flexing her fingers and then putting them into fists. Silver punched first sending her fist right towards Dakota's abdomen, though this time she did not plant her feet, and was slightly off-balance. Dakota easily spotted Silver's mistake as well as the downward tilt of her momentum, quickly shifting so she was to the left of Silver and had her back to her. As her fist came down to her side, she grabbed it, kicking back her leg into Silver's to further upset her balance, ducking down. As Silver was carried forward, she was flipped directly over Dakota's back and flat on her back on the ground, Dakota still gripping Silver's forearm. Smiling down at her, Dakota quickly yanked Silver back up to her feet, then placed her hands on her hips in pride. "I did that on purpose." Silver lied, trying to hide her blush. "Alright, let's see how well you cast in the heat. Follow me." Silver waved her hand, recasting her ice leg into black-ice. "Follow me." She started walking upwards and shortly turned left when they neared the door. It slowly grew hotter and hotter until it was 80 degrees. "This should be good." Dakota laughs, nodding her head along despite knowing Silver was lying. "Of course, teachers need to instruct on mistakes just as much as proper techniques," She says. As she follows Silver up to the hotter temperatures, Dakota severely regrets the tight fabric of her clothing. She remembers she has a bathing suit beneath her clothes and tells herself if she gets any hotter she'll resort to stripping down further. Her gloves had disappeared several minutes before, mostly because Dakota forgot to refreeze them after they began to melt. "I am going to teach you to cast in extreme temperatures. This is how I defeated that Fire Demon Slayer. By training myself to freeze in any heat. Create a shield. Same thickness as before. Focus your emotion into it." Silver said then readied her fist. "If you can't keep it up, you're going to get another dent in your face." Dakota placed her hands together, thinking back to the chilled environment from before. Taking a deep breath in, her hands began to emanate a thick fog as she began to freeze the ambient ethernano around her. Another moment passed, and then a shield flashed in front of her, the same color and size as her other creations had been. The air around her hands and the shield had dropped a significant amount, which lessened the number of times she would need to refreeze the creation as well. Silver's fist crashed through the ice regardless and was headed straight towards Dakota's face. The woman stopped her fist before it touched her apprentice's cheek. "Sorry. I don't want to give you a bruise to match your other cheek. Uh.. It's hard to explain but, you shouldn't need to refreeze your creation if you do it properly." Dakota looked at Silver with a puzzled expression. "But ice can't withstand heats much higher than 40 degrees, much less this," She says, sounding quite lost despite knowing for a fact she was right. "I understand that magic ice is more resistant to melting, but..." she says, trailing off as she began to consider the possibilities. This emotional casting certainly was stronger, but could it really withstand being in hot temperatures? Silver shrugged. "I don't really know how I do it but... Here. Lemme just show you." Ice-Make: Wolf!" A black-ice wolf appeared and sat down. It cocked it's head and pawed Silver. She laughed in response and petted her creation's forehead. "See? He's doing just fine." Dakota watches as the ice creation is made, staring at the wolf. "Living ice creations are easier to sustain for the fact that they are typically self-sustaining," She says. To prove her point, she places her hands together, chanting "Ice-Make: Hawk," from which a giant hawk is created, flying and performing a loop in the air before landing on Dakota's outstretched arm. "My weapons work in a similar way. Since they are connected to me, once they're frozen, they typically don't unfreeze unless I want them to or somebody with a really powerful fire or otherwise corrosive magic hits them. However, with normal static spells, such as a shield, once their cast, it's difficult to control anything that happens to them besides remaking or refreezing them. They aren't affected by anything but what is done to them, whereas a living creature acts almost entirely on its own." Dakota says, scratching the hawk on the junction of its head and neck. Its feathers ruffle in delight, and Dakota smiles childishly. "Like most things, once it leaves your direct control, there's no telling what will happen to it. Like, if I were to leave my money around, somebody may pick it up and go buy some organs off the black market. Does that mean I would've done it? No, just means my money did," She states, shrugging her shoulders. Silver squinted, the gears in her brain clearly working in overdrive to decrypt what Dakota had said. "Uh... Here. Take this glove and aim it at him. He won't melt. These flames burn at 3,210 degrees celsius. Just, pour some of your magic power into the glove and it'll shoot fire on its own." Silver took a few paces back, she knew how overwhelming the gloves could be. It didn't take much energy to start a fire, but once someone did it burnt. "Stay." She commanded and the wolf obediently waited in front Dakota. Dakota grabbed the glove, slipping it over her hand, forcing the hawk to hop up onto her shoulder instead. Dakota looked at the glove curiously, studying the workmanship instead of doing what she had been asked. If she knew steel from aluminium, the piece would probably be a bit more impressive, but she did admire the appearance at the very least. After a few more moments, she pointed an open palm at the wolf, and poured some her magical energy into the glove, allowing a moderately sized orange flame to erupt from it towards the wolf. Just as Silver had said, it still remained, and it didn't look even the slightest bit affected. Dakota hawk and squawked angrily at the fire, though remained unaffected as well. "Hmm," Dakota says as she begins to think. "Freeze my arm," She demands, taking the glove off and offering her arm over to Silver, obviously serious about this. "Uh...Do you want hypothermia?" Silver asked, clearly surprised. "My ice is colder than you can imagine. I don't want to hurt you." Silver fiddled with her ice leg making miniature soldiers that ran around battling each other across the surface. Dakota sighed heavily. "If it gets too much for me to handle, you can just take it off. I don't want you to freeze my arm the whole way through, just on top of my skin, like a glove. It'd be like trying on clothes before you buy them, I just want to see how different it is from what I make," She says. Silver grumbled. "Fine.." She approached Dakota and touched her hand lightly to Dakota's forearm. The skin was soon covered with a thin layer of black-ice. "It shouldn't restrict your movement, but just in case wiggle your fingers." Dakota did as told, wiggling her fingers, enhancing the effect by making small ice particles fly out of the tips like she was casting a magical spell. Giggling about her trick, Dakota begins to inspect the ice on her arm, practically dropping onto the ground and going into a criss-cross stance as she begins to poke and prod at it with her other arm. "Very cold," She muses, beginning to lose the feeling in her arm, though still continuing on with her studies. After a moment, her own hand becomes encased in ice, and she allows it to melt partially, then sticks it to Silver's ice. The two meld together, the black and pale violet merging on the surface. Dakota then lifts her hand away, which allows her to pull her --and some of Silver's-- ice off. "Spiders," She enchants, and three small purple and black speckled spiders are placed on the ground. She repeats the process until she has twelve spiders, each set becoming more dominated by the black ice as she continues, and the ice on her arm is gone. "It's obvious I can control it, which I expected," She states. "Though, I can't replicate it, that much is clear. I can come pretty close, but not exact. Your ice is much more temperature resistant, but from what I can tell, I think mine has the greater tensile strength. Yours comes in handy when faced with opponents who have a natural affinity for fire magic, as well as simply being able to overpower other ice mages by covering their ice with your own. However, when faced with normal weaponry, mine stands a better chance at being able to resist. My ice is also resistant to electric based attacks to the point where it's simply absorbed, doing no damage to me or my weapons, much like rubber, though I imagine yours is as well." Dakota says, lightly tapping on the icy exoskeletons of her arachnids. "Which means my spiders, while inherently weaker than your wolf, would be able to resist being bitten in half or stomped on much much greater than your wolf would be able to resist being bitten into my the spider's tiny teeth." She says, smiling happily. She didn't quite realize she had been blabbering, nor that whatever she had just said wasn't perfectly relevant. "Uh...." Once again Silver was lost in the energetic girl's words but what she did understand is that her ice wasn't deemed strong to her. "Hey. My is is perfectly tensile.." She trailed off after realizing that she had no clue what that word meant. "My creations are strong, hard to break and...they reform quickly?" Dakota shook her head, smiling. "I never said yours wasn't strong, I just said mine was stronger in that regard is all," She clarifies. "And yours will come in handy more often considering most people go for natural weaknesses, like fire, rather than just straight up hitting it until it breaks." Dakota holds her hand out, and two spiders climb on, one pacing around on her palm and the other going up her forearm. "I think part of the reason mine has a greater tensile strength is because I can use both static and dynamic fluently. The static provides a stable and strong base while the dynamic gives it a greater elasticity, so it can bend, but not break." "Still lost here. I use static plenty, I just prefer dynamic. It comes to me naturally." Silver pressed her hands against the floor and grinned. "Watch this." She concentrated for a moment then spoke again. "Ice-Make: Game!" The floor beneath them turns into a black-ice and regular ice checkerboard with black and blue chess pieces on the board. The pieces started moving independently and began a brutal strategy game. Silver watched in amusement. She had always loved board games. They were one of her greatest hobbies. "You said you had other ice mages in your guild. Are they giving you heat?" Dakota nodded. "Your affinity for dynamic magic is what probably makes it more resistant to temperatures while my affinity for static will make mine denser, thus less resistant to being broken by normal swords. I'm not a professional either, so I could be wrong in my assumption as well," She adds, shrugging her shoulders. As Silver made a giant checkerboard, Dakota's eyes light up. While she was also a fan of board games, she liked games that were more involved, like Life or Sorry. Games like chess and Monopoly were too slow for Dakota, and she remembers several instances where she had flipped the board because she was either losing or becoming impatient. At Silver's question, Dakota looked at Dakota with great confusion. "Uh, no? They are ic--" Dakota smacks her forehead after she realizes what Silver had actually meant. "Of course not!" She says hurriedly, waving her hands. "I was up against one of the ice mages in our S-Class trials, and she was actually pretty nice and helpful really. If anything, they are actually really supportive. Most competition I have with others is all in my head," Dakota adds, laughing it off. "I mean why are you in Hargeon. Onibus is a long ways away. You wouldn't have come here if you weren't taking some heat. You must've come here to train, to do something." Silver squinted at her. "You must have some reason, what made you leave." A bewildered look settled on Dakota's face at the sudden interrogation, her eyes going wide. "I-uh," She starts, looking to the side just to avoid Silver's incredulous gaze. "Personal reason?" She offers. "Um, like I said, competition between ice mages usually only exists in my head, and I feel like if I were to ask others to train with me, it'd be a sign or weakness or something, so I try to avoid that. I chose Hargeon because I have a lot of positive memories about the beach, and the sand and waves offer great resistances for strength training. Also, if I'm ever in a situation where I can't breathe, I can train my body so it can survive without oxygen longer. That or find out how to pull oxygen from the water, which I don't think I can do with ice." Dakota says, gaining back her usual charisma as she continues blabbering. Silver grumbled under her breath, suddenly untrusting of the woman. "I'm not going to pry." A black ice knife was formed behind Dakota, unnoticeable against the dark floor. Silver was prepared to attack if the woman gave her any trouble. "What do you want to do now." Dakota smirked at Silver, placing her hands behind her back. "Well, first off, I'm gonna call you an idiot for thinking an ice mage wouldn't be able to sense a cold presence behind her," She says, smiling sweetly, a whip slithering from her conjoined hands at her back, the purple easily distinguishable against her leg and the floor. "Second of all, I'm going to forgive you for trying to kill me, or stab me at the very least. Thirdly, I'm going to request that we continue training since that is what I came here for. Unless that is, you'd like to kick me out." To say she was satisfied with herself was an understatement in its entirety. Dakota exuded --no embodied-- pride at that moment, her sweet smile turning impish, her eyes glowing with an unspoken challenge. Kick me out and prove to me what a weakling you really ar, she demanded. Silver's gut wrenched. "I don't trust you. I invited you into my home, so you better make damn sure that you're being trustworthy." She snorted. "Besides, you can't cast in this heat. You're going to wipe out your magical power like that. I would crush you with my ice." She was incredibly angry, to hear that the small woman had the gall to call her weak made Silver's blood boil. She may be slow, but she could pack a punch. Dakota scoffed, rolling her eyes at Silver. "Sounds like someone's scared they're gonna get their ass kicked," She singsongs. "And what isn't there to trust? I captured a criminal after being in this town for no more than thirty minutes and had noble causes for being here, training to become a better mage for my guild. If anything, I shouldn't trust you, since you attacked me after I tried to bring a criminal to justice, punched me for no reason other than a hurt pride, just tried to stab me in the back, and then proceeded to call me untrustworthy. And, why, I might ask, would I be untrustworthy? Egotistical, yeah, childish, sure, but not untrustworthy." She says. "I will not tolerate you insulting me like that. I was not planning to stab you I was taking precaution. Now you better defend yourself if I'm going to kill you." Silver didn't even bother lighting her gloves before throwing a quick right hook. She was perfectly planted in the ground, prepared to block. Dakota smoothly ducked, shifting slightly to the right as well to ensure that the punch flew over her head. In the same moment, she swung her hand forward, the whip snapping out and striking Silver's ankle with white-hot force, and then tangling around it. She leapt backward, yanking on the whip in hopes to drag Silver's feet from out under her, though she wouldn't particularly count on it, especially considering the woman's stability. She wrapped the whip around her palm several times, and then smacked her hands together, ice encapsulating to just below her elbows. Silver's fist crashed down into the whip, shattering it under the pressure of her gauntlet and her floor beneath the whip. "Ice-Make: Scythe." A large black-ice scythe with a jagged blade appeared in her hands. She swung the large weapon in an arc towards the side of Dakota's stomach. Dakota's hands flashed again, and she shifted, slamming the sword that had formed into the ground at her side. She placed her hand on the hilt then lifted herself up on a single hand as the scythe swung at practically nothing, barely scathing the sword at all. As she came falling forward, the sword was unearthed and she made a downswing on Silver. Silver's bare arm raised automatically in self-defense to block the strike. The woman screamed as the cold ice cut into her bone and dropped to the ground. The blood gushed out of the wound and she frantically tried to bandage it with what little clothing she had. Dakota's eyes widened as Silver's arm began to bleed heavily, yanking the large bow out her hair. She offered it out to Silver, not wanting to force her actions onto her in case she lashed out. After gaining a yes, she tightly wrapped the makeshift bandage over her arm, tying it off. "I'm sorry," She said, casting her gaze down in shame. Silver now knew that she could trust the woman completely. The thought projection that Silver had replicated disappeared, taking their wound with it. She was thankful that she had the patience to learn High Speed, especially because of her leg. Dakota looked up as the Thought Projection disappeared, being absorbed into Silver. "Uh," She says intelligently, quickly scrambling up on her feet. "Was that a test or something?" She asks. "I mean, that was pretty dangerous, just so you know. If I really wasn't somebody you couldn't trust I could've killed you ya know," She adds, probably not to her benefit, but Dakota was never one to think very far ahead. "You didn't hurt me. You hurt a projection of me. I wanted to prove the fact that you would never intentionally harm someone. You clearly passed." Silver's voice was still on ice, she had doubts about the woman though she had proven her innocence and dedication to the greater good. "If you don't want to learn anymore leave. I taught you about your emotions, that's all I really have to teach nowadays." Dakota shook her head to and fro. "What happened to the Woman Who Froze Hell, eh?" She asks, quirking her eyebrows up. "Certainly she wouldn't belittle herself in that way. I'm sure there's plenty more you can teach me," She says confidently, clearly believing in the woman. "If not, you should help me get something like those gauntlets. You said Rowan made them, but there's no way I can get something that well-made without sacrificing everything I've ever earned," Dakota says. "A lot has changed since I was last in Sorcerer Weekly kid." Silver created a seat for herself and sat. Once again she started her habit of creating soldiers on her ice-leg. They were intricate, three forms. One was distinctly female while the other were male. Two were fighting against one then suddenly the pair made a blunder, and the other figure trapped the man completely in ice while the woman's leg was caught. Silver realized what she was creating and promptly destroyed the figures, hoping that Dakota hadn't noticed. "Whatever you say," Dakota says, plopping down onto the ground instead of making a chair. Because of her position, she couldn't get a clear vision of what was being made, though she got the general gist of it. After Silver's quick destruction of the figures, Dakota bit her tongue so as not to say something offensive, certainly an improvement from earlier in the afternoon, though of course her pride wasn't being threatened at the moment, so that may be why. "That's a neat trick," She says instead. "I usually don't have enough patience to make them that intricate." "It's a habit." Silver said quickly. She was now reshaping a ball of ice, making it into a ball, then a star, then a cube. Dakota watched with unabashed amusement as Silver began to make multiple shapes with the ice. She placed her hands together, forming six little people with sparkling tutus. She made a small ice rink, and they began to skate around, performing figure eights, spins, and leaps. "Silver, why did you choose Ice-Make magic?" Dakota asks after a moment, still staring down at her ice skaters. "I like the cold." She replied. "When I was younger I would lie in snowbanks for hours and hours on end. Ster would have to pull me out before I got hypothermia." Silver shrugged. "I don't really know how long I've known it, but I've always been able to manipulate ice. One day I just started making things. I heard people calling them Ice-Make creations, so that's what I did too." Dakota nods along, still watching her ice creations as they smoothly danced along the surface of the ice. "You've always been in an inspiration to me," She says, absentmindedly chasing one of the ice skaters with her finger. "Lady Inari inspired me to join a guild, but really, I wouldn't have been able to become a mage at all hadn't I had such a strong role model like you to look up to. Someone who didn't back down from challenges just continued on the path to victory. After things went downhill for you, I just... I couldn't help but think something bad was going to happen to me. No matter how tough things got, you just kept moving, but then suddenly..." Dakota trails off, sighing heavily. "Sometimes I look back on how my life has been and I just regret not challenging myself enough, for not going beyond my limits when it was clear I hadn't reached them. Everybody else has faced so many challenges to get where they are now, and I'm just some silly fangirl chasing her dreams." Dakota's finger touches the skater, and she falls forward, her knees cracking on the harsh ice. Yet, she gets back up, skating on the ice once again. "I probably don't deserve to be where I am now. I bring shame to S-Class mages everywhere, and I hardly hold up the codes that represent my guild. 'Be strong, but not rude. Be kind, but not weak. Be bold, but not a bully. Be humble, but not timid. Be proud, but not arrogant. Let us show that everyone is welcome at our guild, but that our enemies must stay wary!" She recites, still not looked up at Silver. "That is one giant oxymoron. It is virtually impossible to be like that." Silver laughed. "If you chose me as a role model, then it is no surprise that you ended up this fucked up." She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes, letting the chair disappear as she fell back onto the floor. Dakota shook her head. "Everybody in my guild is pretty good at it," She says, shrugging her shoulders. "Well, there's still some egotistical people, and some people aren't super strong, but, for the most part, they do a good job. And, really, Silver I don't think I could have looked up to anyone different. You were the perfect embodiment of what I wanted to be at the time; a strong hunter of dark mages who did everything in her power to protect the innocent. You weren't some virtuous goddess, you were a human who fought for what she believed in without restrictions." "I can't do that anymore in case you haven't noticed. I am stuck here." Silver said properly. "I wish I could just travel again. Staying still isn't for me, but it's all I can do." "I don't think it's a bad thing that you've started a guild, in fact, maybe settling down might help with resolving any past issues. I mean, not like settling down with a husband or kids or anything, but just not traveling the entire continent in search of bad guys. Strength comes in many forms, and I think discovering new ones is what really makes people stand out. Yeah, we've got expectations and cookie-cutter molds, but that's just bullshit made up by people who didn't have enough balls to be themselves. I think helping other mages discover their legacies is a noble cause, and with you as a guide, I don't think anything could go wrong." She says, smiling brightly. "You're really annoying." Silver stated. "You never shut up, and you are always babbling on about faith, happiness, and the light. It pisses me off." The woman was straight-faced, no hint of emotion. Dakota looks appalled. "Well then," She says, placing her hand on her heart in mock hurt. "If my faith, happiness, and light bother you, then I suppose I'll just pester you about something else," She says, placing a finger on her chin as she began thinking. "Ooh, how's Sterling doing?" She asks after a few moments, looking up at Silver with excitement written plainly on her features. "He's fine." Silver said bluntly. The woman waited for another moment then stood. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave now, I've taught you all I can." The amputee stood and started limping back towards the door to the cavern, instead of going back up the staircase she cross the hall, entering the room across. It was an open cave, exposed to the crashing tide that battered the cliffside. She then stripped and started swimming out towards an island around a mile away. Her stroke was incredibly lopsided. Kicking with one leg and pulling her self along with both arms. Dakota watched as Silver left, an incredibly perplexed look on her face. However, she did as told, creating a pair of ice wings and then flying back over to the town. Once she got there, she landed and began heading towards home, making various small constructs of ice to test out her newfound ability. Category:Aaniimee Category:QueenOfSwords7 Category:Roleplay